In this really so difficult? On and on debate and after debate. Complicated computer algorithms that don’t seem to make any sense. In about 45 minutes I came up with my own computer rankings, that you could argue are as accurate as computer poll we use. It may even need a little tweaking, but remember it took less than an hour. Here’s my criteria…

First of all I’m more about just winning games than getting good computer numbers from a strong conference. That a Mississippi St benefited heavily from playing in the SEC without ever having played any of the top 5 teams (Alabama, LSU, UGA, UF, Texas A&M) until two weeks made no sense to me.

I look at it this way…. beat who you play, and beat teams with good records. Conference strength still plays an implicit role, because the teams in your conference play several OOC games. Don’t get blown out, and yes margin of victory counts, but we’ll cap it at 21.

We’ll use Alabama as my example. If anyone ever wants to see the raw numbers, just let me know.

Alabama earned total 3 points in my computer ranking here’s how.

9-0 record 9/9 wins = 1

7 wins by 21 or more pts (capped at 21) = .778

2 wins over teams with better than 75% winning percentage = .222

0 losses by more than 21 points = 0

Avg of AP and Coaches Poll = 1 ( I certainly feel your eyes can tell you plenty about what’s going on ).

1 + .778 + .222 + 1 – 0 = 3.

You can see how the experts rank things. Yes 6 computer polls that rank Florida State outside the top 15 makes perfect sense to me too. Knocking on Mississippi St. again but how are they ranked in the top 25, when their best win is over 6-3 Middle Tennessee St? Oregon is 5th or worse in 5 computer polls. It apparent computers don’t watch the games.

The most questionable ranking in my poll is Louisiana Tech at 15 ahead of Oregon St. Really though is it that surprising. La Tech is 8-1 and their only loss is against a very good Texas A&M team, and Oregon St. has only 1 quality win. The Beavers and havn’t really looked all that impressive in most of their games either.